Look beyond GDP numbers: The broader India story does not shine as much

It is silly to get into political slanging matches over a difference of decimal points in GDP growth figure, especially when the basic narrative is pretty much what it was earlier, writes T N Ninan

The manner in which the two leading political parties got into a tizzy over some new numbers on growth of gross domestic product (GDP), put out by a government-appointed committee, is instructive. The Congress was over the moon because growth during its period in office was posted as being about a half-percentage point more than previously reported. The government’s response was to come back with a riposte on the costs of that growth.

It would seem that the rate of economic growth has become every government’s choice of phallic symbol, never mind that all calculations of GDP are but someone’s